


to build a home

by knox (booyouwhoran)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, That's it, finn and rey finding a home and being happy together, that's the fic, there's some implied kylux but rlly not a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:12:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6764644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booyouwhoran/pseuds/knox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn and Rey build a home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to build a home

**Author's Note:**

> I was having one of /those/ days and decided to write a little finnrey drabble to cheer me up because finnrey is the cure to all ailments. 
> 
> This includes a tiny bit of implied kylux (I mean literally a few sentences but I know that's not some people's jam so this is a warning).
> 
> Also, this is one of those fics that takes place over an extended period of time - I imagine that they defeat Snoke around three or four years after TFA. 
> 
> I wrote this (and am posting it) at midnight and it's un beta-ed so please feel free to point out any mistakes!
> 
> As always I'm on tumblr at orgvnas if you wanna come yell at me about Finn and Rey.

It’s surprisingly easy, it seems, to take down a totalitarian regime when you inadvertently capture the First Order General, spurring the Master of the Knights of Ren to defect.

 

Without Ren,and Hux, Finn admits, the First Order doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

 

It also turns out that both the General and Ren are surprisingly keen to divulge the Order’s secrets if it means saving eachother’s lives.

 

Finn is equally surprised and disgusted, wrinkling his nose when he tells Rey about it the night before they storm the Finalizer. Her hair is soft and curls gently around her shoulders, brushing his chest as she curls into him. Since she completed her training with Luke and returned to base, they’ve spent every night curled up together – most nights just sleeping, other nights doing more.

 

She laughs into his chest.

 

“Couldn’t you sense the tension when you were a ‘trooper?”

 

He likes that he can talk about it with her, his time in the First Order. It feels less like something to hide now and more like something to be proud of – to be able to say no, I never killed for them. No, I didn’t let them turn me into a machine, not really.

 

They trade stories as a form of intimacy, secret to them, just them. Whispered truths in the dead of night. Only they know what they’ve been through. Only they understand.

 

It helps that Finn is Force-sensitive. Not as strongly as Rey, but strong enough to be trained when Luke returned to base. He has his own lightsaber now, a present of sorts from Luke. It glows purple next to Rey’s blue. She taps him once, twice, three times on his chest.

 

“We should sleep. Big day tomorrow.”

 

He yawns in agreement, drops a kiss to her forehead, and sleeps.

 

 

The final siege on the First Order takes three days, with General Leia and the pilots taking on the Finalizer (with assistance from the former General Hux). He, Rey, Luke and Ren (to Finn’s slight discomfort) are tasked with killing Snoke on his remote, stony planet. They work surprisingly efficiently as a team, the four of them. Finn doesn’t have to like Ren to appreciate his power, though it still makes him smile to know that Rey can easily beat him in a fight.

 

When all the blood is spilled, though Snoke’s blood is less like blood and more like thick, black oil (it’s disgusting – Finn recognises it as an immediate sanitation hazard), Rey grabs his hand, grins up at him through muck and dirt.

“Let’s go home.”

 

Finn can’t help but grin in response, squeezing her hand.

 

“Where did you have in mind? And don’t you dare say Jakku.”

 

Her peals of laughter echo off the walls of Snoke’s chamber.

 

“Are you sure? Jakku’s very nice in the winter. Less flies. Marginally.”

 

He tugs her in close.

 

“Jakku’s not home.”

 

 

In fact, home is a foreign concept to the both of them. Rey had Luke now, and Leia and Ren, oddly enough and Finn has assumed she’d want to follow them.

 

Hux had given him the co-ordinates of his home planet, Finn presumes unwillingly. Perhaps it was an apology.

 

When they return to base, they shower for an age together, mapping one another’s new scars, retracing the old ones. Rey’s finger glides down the one on his back left by Ren at Starkiller years ago.

 

“You’re my family, you know,” she murmurs against his skin, sounding almost apologetic. “More than anything.”

 

Finn turns to face her, slides a thumb across her cheek to dispel a drop of water, a silent confirmation that she, too, is his family.

 

Later, as they curl up in their bed, she suggests the planet named on the slip of paper next to the bed.

 

“We could go there, you know. Find a place. Settle down.” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, both of them knowing that an ordinary life is out of the question.

 

Finn thinks, long and hard. He’s looked at that paper often enough, ink distorted by his hands. He wants to go, wants to know who he was, who his parents are.

 

But a small part of him is scared. Scared of what he’ll find. Scared that there’s nothing _to_ find. He projects all this to Rey, unable to find the proper words.

 

“Okay. We’ll find somewhere else then. And one day, we’ll go. When we’re _both_ ready.”

 

“I love you,” Finn tells her, eyes boring into hers, filled with a thousand memories that three words fail to capture.

“I know,” she tells him as she always does, lets the galaxy of kisses she leaves on his chest be her response.

 

 

It takes another six months for the Resistance to figure out exactly what to do. Finn has come to think of base as home. It feels right here, the first place where he was allowed to be more than FN-2187, more than a cog in a killing machine. He helps Poe, Jess and Snap fix the damage to the planes. He helps Leia deals with the influx of Stormtroopers that the New Republic has taken in. In fact, he ends up running a sort of post-Order stormtrooper program. He helps them create names and identities, helps them realise what part of them is instilled by the First Order and how to overcome that. To his surprise, Hux offers his help, somewhat grudgingly. Finn hasn’t forgiven him, not really, and certainly doesn’t like him but.

 

Well.

 

There are few people who understand the stormtrooper program as well as Finn and Hux. Finn was brought up on hate and fear – that’s what the First Order taught. With the Order gone, it feels like it’s time to let some of those things go.

 

While Finn is busy healing with stories and kindness, Rey and Luke are travelling, finding Force-sensitive species and groups. They’re going to try an academy again, this time without Luke shouldering the burden by himself. Ren offers to help, voice flashing with so much regret that Finn can sense it from over the base.

 

He and Rey holo-message every night. She tells him Luke’s still thinking about it, that he wants her to help him run it.

 

“What do you want?” he asks, unable to sense it from this far. Finn isn’t even sure what system she’s in. Neither is Rey. She thinks a moment, face scrunched up in a way that makes Finn’s heart skip even now.

 

“I want a house. I want you and me to live in a house, somewhere green. I can help at the academy and you can too, and keep running programs for people affected by the First Order. But we can go home at the end of the day, where it’s just us. And Poe and Jess and Snap and Leia can visit. Maybe Ren, in a few years. That’s what I want, Finn. You and me. For good.”

 

She looks at him, expectant and hopeful as his eyes fill with tears. She frowns in concern.

 

“Wait, Finn, did I upset you? Because it’s okay if you don’t want that, I just thought-”

 

Finn cuts her off with a half laugh, half sob.

 

“Rey, that’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

They grin at eachother stupidly through the holo screen until Luke calls for Rey.

 

“Come back to me soon,” Finn tells her.

 

“I will,” she promises.

 

 

The planet Luke chooses for the Academy is lush and green, just like Rey wanted. It takes a few months for the students to come in. Some are old, some are children followed by cautious families, scared of the possibility of another massacre. The older ones are scared of Ren but the younger ones have no such compulsions. Finn never thought he’d see Kylo Ren getting his hair braided by a five year old Twi’lek girl, but he supposes that maybe peace brings out the good in people. Peace and Rey. She seems to have that effect. The kids adore her, make her show them how to levitate things with their mind almost every day. Some of the younger ones call her ‘Miss Rey.’ She likes it, she tells him.

 

They find a house already on the planet, far enough from the Academy for peace. It’s more a cottage, really, made of stone with low roofs and large rooms. It needs work and every break day they share they spend fixing up this and that. Finn enjoys painting while Rey tends to gravitate towards more manual tasks. There’s an old speeder in the shed that she spends weeks fixing up. They both enjoy the novelty of being able to have _things_. Along one shelf is a collection of shells Rey brought Finn from Luke’s island. Soon, there are presents from the students – a pretty rock here, a woven bracelet there. Finn gets messages from ex-troopers, thank you cards and letters. Each one goes on a wall, each wall painted a different colour. It feels like theirs.

 

Finn is wearing purple paint splattered overalls and Rey is covered in motor oil, having finally fixed the speeder, which she’s dragged him outside to show him. There are flowers growing all around them which Rey likes to weave into crowns and put on Finn’s head. He takes her hands as they look up at their home.

 

“Ours,” he smiles at her.

 

She squeezes his hand.

 

“Ours,” she replies.

 

If someone had told FN-2187 that he would have a house, no, a _home_ , and someone who loved him completely to share it with, he would’ve laughed.

 

To Finn, anything seems possible.

 

 

A year after the Academy is up and running, he feels a different sense of longing. Rey senses it too. She retrieves the slip of paper from their shared sock drawer and hands it too him.

 

The next day, they commandeer the Falcon from Chewie and fly.

 

The planet is small and blue, dry in a way that is completely different to Jakku. The earth is flat and brown, though thousands of tiny red and purple flowers peak up from beneath the cracks. They come across a small village where inhabitants of different species mill around the centre chatting amiably. Something dislodges in Finn’s chest and he knows this is the place.

 

Rey nudges him gently. There’s a woman watching them, a woman with his same dark skin and warm eyes. He recognises her instantly, though he’s not sure how.

 

“Mom?” It comes out as both a question and a plea, half shouted across the square. Her mouth drops open slightly, and in an instant they are together, clutching one another tightly, soft sobs melding against eachother. She pulls back, one hand caressing his face. “My son,” she smiles at him. “My son is home.”

 

She takes them back to her house, a cottage not dissimilar to their own. She asks what he goes by now, a flicker of pain flashing across her eyes when he tells her about Poe choosing his name. He tells her everything, and she him. Her eyes cloud with grief when she speaks of his father’s passing – he was the town mayor and suffered a heart attack after losing his son. He takes her small hands in his larger ones. Rey has been observing quietly, no doubt recounting her own reuniting with Luke. When Rey finally speaks it is soft, so as not to break the moment.

 

“You could come back with us. We have a spare room, in the house. I think you and Leia would get on well.”

 

His mother (Isabel, he’s learnt) lets go of one of his hands to claps Rey’s. The three of them are united, shaking with happiness.

 

“Let me gather my things.”

 

 

Rey was right, as she so often is. Leia and Isabel get along swimmingly. It turns out Isobel and Finn’s father Isaiah had been quite the adventurers in their youth. There are so many stories to share and so much time to do it. Isabel moves into a cottage a few miles down. Rey worries she’ll get lonely, insisting she can have the spare room. Isabel winks at her, takes her hand and tells her she imagines they’ll have use for those rooms in the future.

 

It takes four more years for that to come true. Rey is now a fully fledged teacher at the Academy. Finn paints a lot and now works with the kids who struggle with their control of the Force as most of the ex-troopers have been through their program now. He figures it’s a good way to avoid a second Kylo Ren incident. Leia and Hux both teach battle strategy and politics – together, astonishingly. Apparently they get into heated discussions often. The students love it. Poe moves next door to them after taking time to travel. He winds up as everyone’s favourite not-a-teacher (he ends up teaching piloting). Snap and Jess work as engineers around the Academy, fixing up the old fighters that Poe brings in. Even the droids have jobs, thought they mostly get under people’s feet. Chewie helps with lunches. Everyone is astonished by how well he can cook. He gives a pleased roar at their surprise.

 

The first child is a boy. He has skin the colour of the cocoa drink Luke makes them after long nights, Rey’s sharp cheekbones and Finn’s nose. He’s the most beautiful thing Finn’s ever seen.

 

“We’re not naming him Ben,” He and Rey say in unison. They decide on Isaiah. Poe is the godfather, of course, and when Finn asks Isabel to be the godmother she tears up a little. By the time he’s old enough to walk, he’s already levitating everything around the house. They all notice the fear in Leia’s eyes and Ren’s hand on her shoulder. She seems to worry less, after. He is enrolled in the Academy early and takes after Rey in that he’s obsessed with flying. Poe’s been taking him flying since the age of two. Finn tries to pretend he’s not having a heart attack every time.

 

Baby Padme is born when Isaiah is four and she has Finn’s eyes and Rey’s smile. Isaiah adores his sister and Finn has caught him trying to bring her to school in his backpack more than once. Poe is the godfather, again. He promises he won’t let this one fly by herself until she’s at least six. Poe’s a dirty liar. Leia seems shocked when they ask her to be godmother, even though she’s the one who suggested the name. By the time she’s three, Padme is already following in Leia’s footsteps and has taken to ‘commanding’ not only Isaiah, but also an entire class of six year old boys. They’re terrified of her. It’s hilarious.

 

Han is born under a solar eclipse. It’s a good sign, they’re assured. Poe is, of course, defacto godfather. Han doesn’t stop smiling from the day he’s born, though he learns extremely quickly and tends to use it to his advantage. He’s deceptively crafty, much like his namesake. When Rey asks Ren to be co-godparent he freezes for a second, like Rey’s trying to be cruel. She is a little bit, but mostly it’s a second chance, an olive branch after over a decade of uneasiness. He accepts graciously and gets into way too many contests with Poe over who can be the best godfather.

 

Finn and Rey sit together on their back porch. Poe and Ren are ‘showing’ Han the best flight manoeuvres, which in mime just looks like a lot of flailing. Snap and Jess watch and laugh, drinking beer while Isabel nods amicably at Chewie who’s tells her a story. Isaiah is curled up on her lap, floating rocks in the air. Luke and Leia are having some disagreement. Padme is joining in, hand on her hip to mimic Leia’s perfectly.

 

Finn looks at Rey’s face, creased with a few soft lines that weren’t there when they met. He thinks they’re beautiful, presses a thumb into the laughter lines at her eyes and brushes their entwined knuckles to his lips. She rests her head on his shoulder, hair loose and tickling his chin.

 

“Home,” she whispers.

 

“Our home,” he agrees.


End file.
